needful

1 of 2

adjective

need·​ful ˈnēd-fəl How to pronounce needful (audio)
1
: being in need
2
needfully adverb
needfulness noun

needful

2 of 2

noun

1
: something needed or requisite
2
: money

Examples of needful in a Sentence

Adjective What's most needful now is patience. let's first help the needful families in our own community Noun fortunately, the family had the needful to stock up the larder before the long hard winter packed a warm jacket and other needfuls for an autumn weekend in the country
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Adjective
Who promises tomorrows to a whole needful planet, restrikes that match? Corey Van Landingham, The New Yorker, 19 June 2023 What sort of response was needful? Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 14 Jan. 2013 They are not found to be such on the injustice and violence of individuals, and lose their efficacy in proportion to the number combined together, that is, in proportion as their efficacy becomes needful. James Freeman, WSJ, 27 Dec. 2022 Sometimes environments and selection pressures change radically, and large effect mutations may become needful. Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 18 May 2010 For Queen and other Black poets, hip-hop is not only beats and rhymes but something more needful. Adam Bradley, New York Times, 4 Mar. 2021 Oxfam exhorts its supporters to send things to the needful Cratchits of the developing world. Matthew Sweet, The Economist, 4 Dec. 2020 McBride was touched by the way, in their later years, Marcroft was the primary caregiver for Joyce, who had become needful of that care. Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 17 Nov. 2020 Many proponents of critical race theory — whose animating idea is that race is the one thing needful, the single lens through which all other phenomena should be viewed — are indeed trying to compel compliance. Greg Weiner, National Review, 10 Sep. 2020
Noun
The actor did indeed ‘get it together’ and is doing the needful to make things official. Elizabeth Ayoola, Essence, 4 Nov. 2024 Even on this side of the border, the supply of people without legal status but needful of income has led to employers’ brazenly violating child-labor laws. The Editors, National Review, 5 May 2023

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1671, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun

1614, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of needful was in 1614

Dictionary Entries Near needful

Cite this Entry

“Needful.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/needful. Accessed 26 Dec. 2024.

Kids Definition

needful

adjective
need·​ful
ˈnēd-fəl
: necessary for a purpose
needfully
-fə-lē
adverb
needfulness noun

More from Merriam-Webster on needful

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!